Sony doesn’t want Vita overrun with console ports like with PSP

By Stephany Nunneley

Vita promises “console-like games on portables” as with PSP before it, and Sony’s determined to ensure its latest handheld isn’t overrun with ports as was the case with its predecessor.

Speaking with Gamasutra, Sony’s marketing VP for handhelds and consoles, John Koller, said titles released on Vita need to be “unique and define the Vita experience,” and Sony is taking steps to ensure the mistakes made with PSP aren’t repeated.

“The issue that happened with PSP is we got overrun with ports,” he said. “It became very difficult for us to define what made PSP unique. The content development became a bit unstructured or decentralized, in that we got a lot of content that was on PlayStation 2 and got thrown over to the handheld.

According to Koller, portable games aren’t played just because the consumer “left the living room,” and believes unique experiences can be created by developers even if the content is an interpretation of a console game.

“Follow what Ubisoft is doing with Assassin’s Creed,” Killer said. “Follow what Activision is doing with Call of Duty.”